Issue N° 13 Edited by Claire Carroll (F'90)

Dear Fletcher Women:

As Chair of the Fletcher Women's Network, I am delighted to introduce our thirteenth newsletter, one that enables us to take yet another step forward by focusing on the concept, needs, examples and goals of "global women's leadership" as they relate to Fletcher women.

This newsletter is both about, and grounded in, women's leadership. Three Fletcher alumnae on Fletcher's Board of Overseers have taken the lead in launching the Initiative for Women's International Leadership (IWIL): Lis Tarlow (F'84, 97), Alice Finn (F'86) and Betsy Powell (F'62). You may have read the article about IWIL on page ten of the 2012 spring/summer issue of Fletcher News. Below, you will find interviews with Lis and Alice that explain their motivations and aspirations. Claire Carroll (F'90) spearheaded the development of a "white paper" to guide the group’s initial thinking. Within this newsletter we share key sections of the white paper and we (both the FWN and IWIL) sincerely thank Claire for taking on the project.

Leadership has many dimensions, with the most common version recognized as that exercised within political or corporate spheres. Another version conjures images of spearheading action, within the context of sports, military campaigns and citizen demonstrations. Yet one fundamental aspect of leadership is the assertion and use of power that is not necessarily undertaken publicly or visibly. One framework for understanding "power" proposes three types: visible, hidden and invisible.1 We most often think of the first two, suggesting the visible power of a President or CEO, and behind-the-scenes powerbrokers, respectively.

The third type of power, however, is often overlooked: Invisible power refers to the power to "shape meaning", i.e. affecting how people think and what they value. Such power may be exercised overtly or subtly by leaders in religious, educational and media institutions, as well as by leaders in families and communities. For this newsletter, we have an example of such leadership from Barbara Geary Truan (F'90), who challenges us to think more clearly about the pervasive and contentious issue of "work-life balance".

Finally, with this newsletter we would like to encourage our readers to consider whether leadership necessarily presupposes a public and visible dimension. In February, a group of eight Fletcher women gathered in Geneva to discuss IWIL and develop some input for its direction. One of their primary recommendations, resulting from nearly seven hours of discussion, was that IWIL adopt a broader definition of leadership:

1 See A New Weave of Power, People and Politics by Lisa VeneKlasen and Valerie Miller of Just Associates, www.justassociates.org/

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This definition should go beyond C-suite positions in industry and high-ranking government jobs. It should include women who take initiative, who use their positions to influence events, and who have successfully integrated meaningful professional work with personal goals. Women running their own small businesses, teaching, or shaping community all are very much leaders.

Thus when we seek and recognize women leaders, do we expect their leadership to be visible? Is the leadership of Fletcher women always visible? Or, might some be powerful but hidden? Furthermore, to what extent are "accepted" definitions of leadership predicated on where and how men typically take leadership, thereby ignoring or undervaluing different places and ways in which women often lead? With this newsletter (but hopefully also with your responses), we seek to identify Fletcher women leaders who demonstrate a variety of leadership approaches.

Regarding the more visible leadership, we as the Fletcher Women's Network aim to transcend networking activities and create purposeful mechanisms to increase our voices and influence. Two such initiatives still in the planning stages are introduced in this newsletter - one relates to the Op-Ed Project (to ensure Fletcher women's perspectives are in the public debate) and the other is a pilot project aimed at getting Fletcher women onto public boards-of-directors (to contribute to planning and policies, and exercise some influence in those realms).

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this issue, but particularly to Claire Carroll, Barbara Geary Truan, Karla Brom (F'89) and Violeta Archer (F’91). Thank you, too, to all Fletcher women who make us proud by their leadership around the world, of all kinds. And thank you to the founders of IWIL for generating this focus and for working with the School to strengthen its contributions to women's leadership.

With admiration for Fletcher women as they lead in so many ways, Marcia Greenberg (F'91)

Note: If you are interested in any of the topics or initiatives in this issue, please note the links to 'Round the [virtual] Water Cooler for more information and for discussions. If you want to be part of planning and follow-up, be sure to click on "follow" at the bottom of any discussion and note your interest for us!

If you have joined us at the Water Cooler, but have forgotten your password, go to the sign-in page, enter the email you used, and click on "Forgot your password?" so the system can send you an opportunity to create a new one. http://fletcherwomensnetwork.ning.com/main/authorization/signIn?target=http://fletcherwomens network.ning.com/

If you have not yet joined more than 575 women on our on-line community, email us at Fletcherwomen@rocketmail to ask to be invited.

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1 | Initiative on Women's International Leadership (IWIL)

A growing body of research correlates strong organizational performance with the presence of women in top management positions and on boards. Nevertheless, a complex web of deeply embedded institutional barriers and psychological factors prevent women from rising to chief positions at the same rates as their male counterparts. The good news is that significant and encouraging efforts to address this imbalance are underway not only on the global stage, but also in our own backyard at Fletcher with the launch of IWIL.

In May 2011, Fletcher's Senior Spotlight on IWIL co-founder Alice Finn Director for Alumni Relations, Jennifer Weingarden Lowery, Q: How do you define leadership? A: I’m in the private sector, in the wealth management industry, where invited Fletcher board member, leadership is defined in traditional terms as being an owner, C-level Alice Finn, to meet with executive, and/or on the board of a company. In the private sector, current Fletcher students unless you are in a traditional leadership position, you don’t get the working on the Gender & same pay, recognition, or opportunities to have as much of an Equality Project (GEP), a impact. Therefore, for example, it’s important for women to get on student organization of men boards. Of course, women take leadership roles in non-traditional and women that has been ways, not necessarily as the titled head of traditional conducting research and organizations. They do more than they get credit for. However, it’s organizing skills-based training much harder for women to achieve their potential if, for complicated for students interested in reasons, traditional positions of leadership are not as available to them. institutional change, using case

studies that focus on Q: What factors do you attribute to your own rise to a leadership 2 position? gender. Finn came away from A: I’ve been thinking about work-life balance since I was an the meeting thinking that undergraduate at Harvard/Radcliffe in 1984. With Radcliffe president GEP’s important work was part Matina Horner as my adviser, I organized a roundtable on work-life of a bigger need to increase the balance, which made me aware of the inherent challenges. So I number of Fletcher women in structured my life to do both. For example, I began my career as a leadership positions. Finn lawyer but saw that the hourly billing system would make it difficult to noted that given that one of be the type of parent I wanted to be - and so partly for that reason, I Fletcher’s primary aims is to switched careers. educate professionals from around the world and to Q. What do you hope IWIL will accomplish? A. While, anecdotally, there are examples of progress, not enough has prepare them for positions of changed statistically in 25 years, and this motivates me to try to make a leadership and influence in the difference. Just as women who came before me passed on their national and international knowledge and experience, I want to use mine to help women achieve arenas, Finn concluded that their potential. Women, and men, who come to Fletcher wanting to be clearly more needs to be done global leaders should be given both the academic and pragmatic tools to support women’s attainment they will need to succeed in the long run so they can help improve the in this area. future of national and international leadership for both genders.

2 'Round the Cooler, go to Elisabet Rodriguez’ discussion forum. http://fletcherwomensnetwork.ning.com/forum/topics/how-to-leverage-our- experience?commentId=2085666:Comment:24778

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Finn's meeting with GEP coincided with a larger discussion among several Fletcher board members, including Finn, Lis Tarlow, Betsy Powell, and Farah Pandith, who agreed that Fletcher could be doing more, in service of its mission, to "get aspiring leaders to come to Fletcher and then help keep them on the leadership path.” At the Fall 2011 meeting of the Fletcher Board of Overseers, Finn, Powell, and Tarlow proposed a new initiative, then called the Global Women Leadership at Fletcher:

The impetus behind our initiative is the recognition that more than half of the students at Fletcher are women, yet they do not seem to be rising to positions of leadership and influence in the numbers that one would hope for by now. The reasons are complicated, and not unique to Fletcher. We have a vision -- to establish Fletcher as the premier institution that educates and supports global women leaders. We believe this vision to be good for Fletcher, for both the female and male members of the Fletcher community, and for the global community at large, which, studies show, is far better off with a balance of male and female leaders.

The board unanimously endorsed the proposal and authorized Alice, Betsy, and Lis to form a task force and begin fleshing out the contours of the initiative.

The IWIL leaders moved swiftly to advance IWIL. In mid-October, they convened their first outreach meeting, to which they invited members of Fletcher's Administration and faculty, along with leaders of GEP and "Global Women" (Fletcher's women's organization). Mieke van der Wansem (F'90), Associate Director of Fletcher's Center for International Environment and Resource Policy and long-standing member of the FWN's Steering Committee, was among those invited. She and Claire Carroll introduced the FWN at the inaugural meeting - and thus launched the FWN-IWIL collaboration. IWIL's leaders soon established a Task Force composed of Fletcher board members, Senior Associate Dean Deborah Nutter, Jennifer Weingarden Lowery, and prominent alumnae. They also formalized collaboration with the FWN by inviting Marcia Greenberg to represent us on the taskforce.

Since then, the FWN has contributed in various ways: First, Claire Carroll developed a white paper to review current information and reflections about women's leadership. Claire sought and incorporated the expertise of Fletcher alumnae such as Elisabet Rodriquez (F'90) and Elizabeth Vazquez (F'96). Second, the FWN worked with IWIL to develop a survey, which was emailed to all Fletcher alumnae, to gather information on women's experiences as Fletcher students, examples of Fletcher women's leadership(s), and input for identifying IWIL's focus priorities. Three FWN members, Sue Dorfman (F'91), Jindra Cekan (F'90), and Ciara Smyth (GMAP '11) along with Leslie Puth (F'11), provided critical input and guidance for the survey. Third, Lis and Betsy met with Marcia in January to better understand the Fletcher Women’s Network foundations and mission and recognize how IWIL and the FWN share or complement their respective goals.

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Spotlight on IWIL co-founder Lis Tarlow

Q: What factors and skills do you attribute to your rise to a leadership position? My career has been in academia and academic administration, in the field of Soviet/Russian studies. The most important factor, of course, was a good education. The second was mentoring, which I was fortunate to have from several wonderful professors and colleagues, mostly male, since my field was predominately male at the time. Networking was key to learning about the type of job opportunities I was seeking (this was before the Internet!), and also to securing critical interviews. From there it was about hard work, consistent learning, diplomacy, and seizing opportunities to take on innovative and meaningful projects.

Q: What resources do you wish you had that you didn’t? How has this informed the work you do today? Once established in what I considered the ideal professional position, it was a question of figuring out the all-important issue of how to balance work and family. Looking back, I realize this was the area where I struggled the most. It was a time when you did not discuss family at work, lest you appear less than serious about your career. While my children were young, I negotiated a part-time schedule (though often working full-time hours) and resisted taking advantage of more challenging and dynamic opportunities. My commitment to IWIL has much to do with that struggle and my desire now to help women discuss, explore, and hopefully find the right balance as well as strengthen their skills in other important areas. This is an exciting moment, when such conversations are being held and debated even in mainstream media. There is recognition of the systemic barriers that continue to make it difficult for women to move into leadership positions. Fletcher women are poised to become national and international leaders. I am excited about the possibility of helping them stay on track and achieving their dreams.

By April, IWIL had received approximately 400 survey responses, from which it identified five program areas for helping Fletcher students and alumni, especially women, achieve professional leadership:

1. Public speaking 2. Negotiating salaries and benefits 3. Work-life balance 4. Mentoring, coaching, and sponsorship 5. Using an annual alumnae achievement award to bring attention to outstanding alumnae and to inspire current female students.

Subsequently, IWIL has identified a sixth focus area: taking concerted steps to get more Fletcher women on corporate boards.

The Fletcher Board of Overseers was overwhelmingly receptive to IWIL’s proposal to address those areas. Over the course of the coming academic year, IWIL plans to work with Fletcher faculty, staff, and student groups to begin implementing targeted programs. It will also analyze the viability of establishing a more permanent institute for women’s international leadership at Fletcher that would be faculty-directed and have a primary focus on research and policy. Hence IWIL expects to focus on the school while the

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FWN will lead initiatives for alumnae - all while expecting some overlap and continuing opportunities for collaboration.

To get updates on IWIL, volunteer to participate or simply discuss its potential, go to ‘Round the Water Cooler! http://fletcherwomensnetwork.ning.com/forum/topics/fletcher-s-iwil-initiative-for-women-s- international-leadership

2 | Inspiring Leaders among Fletcher Alumnae

Casual observation indicates, and hard data confirm, that women are largely absent from leadership circles. Women hold fewer than 20% of all national decision-making positions. Women in chief corporate positions grew from just 12% to 14% over the past decade. Even in the nonprofit sector, women’s representation in leadership has remained stalled at about 20%.

Is the experience of Fletcher women consistent with these sobering statistics? This is an area deserving of careful research, and one that the FWN and IWIL seek to study and influence. For now, we can celebrate some victories -- there are numerous examples of Fletcher women rising to influential positions of leadership. For example, Farah Pandith (F'05) was appointed in 2009 as Special Representative to Muslim Communities in the U.S. Dept of State. Barbara Bodine (F'71) is former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen and Sandy Vogelgesang (F'65) is former U.S. Ambassador to Nepal, while many others have held the rank of U.S. ambassador. Others, such as Busadee Santipitaks (F'90), Antoinette Sayeh (F'86) and Radmila Sekerinska (GMAP '07), have been high ranking diplomats, ministers or parliamentarians in their home countries of Thailand, Liberia and Macedonia, respectively. Four out of nine Fletcher graduates who made the “Top 99 Most Influential International Professionals Under 33” list in the Diplomatic Courier’s Fall 2011 issue were women - including U.S. Navy Lieutenant Jamie Lynn De Coster (F'10), a counterinsurgency advisor on the International Security Assistance Force.

Elisabet Rodriguez (F'90) has devoted her career to making a difference in this arena. A former trial attorney, Rodriguez founded Rodriguez & Associates, a consulting firm that helps women hone skills to access top positions and educates organizations identify and root out deeply entrenched policies and practices that freeze women out of power. Rodriguez maintains that the role of women in the global workforce is the most significant discussion for the 21st century, and one in which Fletcher should be investing. Women make 80% of purchasing decisions globally, represent 60% of all college graduates in Europe and North America, and are responsible for generating 25% of the GDP in the United States. Never before has there been such a confluence of international attention to the economic importance of women and the need for policies to enable them to fulfill their potential. The position of women – as employees, consumers and leaders – is seen as a measure of health, maturity and economic viability. (Wittenberg-Cox and Maitland)

Rodriguez has noted that neuroscience (Brizendine) together with sociological research (Gurian and Annis; Deborah Tannen, Eagly and Carli) has helped re-frame the dialogue related to women’s overall “make-up”, describing gender-specific attributes as desirable traits for leadership in a global and complex world. A look at overall leadership “requirements” for the new global economy, for example, point at: sharing power, teambuilding, collaboration, and

FWN Newsletter: Fletcher Women & Leadership Page 6 November 2012 conflict management. Women thrive in environments that promote these attributes. Rodriguez coaches women to identify and take ownership of their strengths and to substitute certain male- based behavior with more effective strategies.

In fact, Elizabeth Vazquez (F'96) has built her career around this concept. Vazquez is CEO and co-founder of WEConnect International, a global non-profit organization that facilitates sustainable economic growth by increasing opportunities for female-owned businesses to succeed in global value chains. WEConnect educates, trains, registers, and certifies women’s business enterprises that are at least 51 percent owned, and its network represents over US $700 billion in annual purchasing power. Vazquez notes that women have an amazing ability to play key leadership roles locally, nationally and globally because they identify holes in the market and are passionate about getting solutions out into the world. They are powerful economic players who do not yet have access to the right networks and resources. WEConnect facilitates connections between talented women entrepreneurs (especially those in developing countries) and global distribution channels.

Pat Mitchell, President and CEO of The Paley Center for Media and one of Newsweek's 2011 150 Women Who Shake the World, says that women need the “equivalent of an old boys’ network”. In this spirit, the idea for a Fletcher Women’s Network (FWN) was born at the Fletcher reunion in May 2006, with formal establishment later that year. Recognizing that there are gender-specific challenges relating to career advancement, visibility of women's contributions and women's leadership in public life, FWN serves as a worldwide network to support professional and personal development and enhance opportunities at local, national, community, and global levels.

As valuable as the FWN is, though, some experts warn that women’s networks may offer support but little in terms of leverage (Hewlett). Ciara Smyth’s (GMAP'11) research on Madeline Albright, and , the three women to have reached the highest office in U.S. foreign policy leadership, clearly shows there is one primary factor to explain their success: their ability to identify influential, powerful male sponsors who could facilitate their ambition and to successfully leverage these relationships to master Washington power circles. Each of their career opportunities can be directly attributed to a male sponsor. These men were more than mentors; they were career sponsors who repeatedly advocated on behalf of these women among the powerful and elite of foreign policy leadership. This, according to Smyth, is a key difference in a woman’s ability to advance in the U.S. foreign policy community and a competency we might consider nurturing in emerging women leaders.'

For some recommended reading, please see the end of this newsletter.

3 | Fletcher Women, the 7 Sisters, and the Women in Public Service Project

Another piece relating to IWIL involves the "The Women in Public Service Project" (WPSP) (http://www.womeninpublicservice.org). Farah Pandith, Special Representative to Muslim Communities at the U.S. Department of State and a graduate of Smith College (as are Tarlow and Powell), was a key architect for its 2011 creation and development. Announced on the 100th

FWN Newsletter: Fletcher Women & Leadership Page 7 November 2012 anniversary of International Women's Day, this groundbreaking global initiative led by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in partnership with the “7 Sister” schools, aims to bring a new generation of women from all corners into careers in public service. Pandith suggested that Fletcher's Board members investigate ways for Fletcher to partner with the Project, and a meeting was held with the Smith College president.

In fact, twenty-eight members of the FWN 'Round the Water Cooler are also graduates of the "7 (now 5) Sisters". Fletcher Women: "7 Sisters While a number of you have expressed interest in the news regarding Alumnae" found the Women in Public-Service Project, Karla Brom (Wellesley '85, 'Round our Cooler F'89) wanted to know more, in hopes of identifying ways that "double alumnae" might bring the schools together for women's Smith: 7 Wellesley: 6 global leadership. Having recently contacted Wellesley, she gained Bryn Mawr: 3 some information that she was willing to share with others (and Mt. Holyoke: 7 which you may in turn want to pass along to help with achieving the Barnard: 2 WPSP objectives). Haverford: 1 Vassar: 2 As an update, the WPSP is now being managed by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. (http://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/the-women- public-service-project-joins-forces-the-woodrow-wilson-international-center-for) The program helps identify “mid-career” women (aged between 25 and 45) in politics and/or political office around the world who are “stuck” and need assistance to keep them moving forward in their careers. It focuses explicitly on women in politics, with the goal of achieving a "world in which political and civic leadership is at least 50 percent female by 2050." The Institutes are a combination of leadership training and exposure to the broader liberal arts education. Each of the women’s colleges will host an institute: The first was at Wellesley this summer, next will be at Smith this fall in Paris, and the following will be hosted by Bryn Mawr next summer.

Karla notes that a quick takeaway regarding Fletcher and the WPSP is that the FWN could certainly help identify some mid-career women around the world who are feeling stuck! But beyond that, it may not be an appropriate opportunity for FWN collaboration.

Yet Karla's contact at Wellesley suggested that a better partnership might be with Wellesley College’s Albright Institute (http://www.wellesley.edu/albright/index2.html). The FWN can collaborate to ensure that Fletcher women are identified to address Wellesley students going forward. While she made it clear that she was gathering information in her individual capacity, Karla also noted that she is part of the FWN and that the FWN also focuses on women’s professional advancement and leadership.

Are you an alumna, or do you have ideas regarding Fletcher's collaboration with women's colleges? What about women's schools outside the U.S.? Might Fletcher connect with them? To join the discussion regarding the WPSP and such partnerships, visit the forum. http://fletcherwomensnetwork.ning.com/forum/topics/women-in-public-service-project

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4 | Work-life Balance: A Call for Rethinking and New Visions by Barbara Geary Truan, F'90

Is it just me, or is anyone else tired of hearing the phrase “work-life balance” -- three words that constitute the Holy Grail of the modern woman, an hypnotic mermaid song and Herculean feat wrapped into one. Three words that invariably evoke tales – not unlike the quests of the middle ages – of elusive searches, soul wrenching self-examination and, above all, extreme sacrifice. Is something wrong with this picture?

Work-life balance: the topic of many thoughtful articles, well-intended seminars, stimulating networking events and endless, fruitless conversations among professional women. Fruitless because it is the Holy Grail: everyone wants it, everyone looks for it, speaks of it, longs for it and yet no one knows where or how to find it or, if we can bear to be completely honest with ourselves, whether it can exist.3

Frankly, I have had enough and would like to point out that the emperor is stark naked.4 The very concept of work-life balance is, at best, useless and outdated. What if we were to stop throwing around these three little words and start thinking straight?

Peter Senge, systems thinker and director of the Center for Organizational Learning at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, explains in The Fifth Discipline how we can be prisoners of systems and of our own thinking. I suspect the idea of work-life balance is one such prison for women today. If we take a moment to examine the nested assumptions that lay within the concept of our own Holy Grail, here is what we find:

 “Work” refers to professional effort that involves monetary compensation and social status. It is something that happens outside the home and resides within a public domain.  “Life” refers to all that is private and non-monetarily compensated. This includes our health, our families, our homes and essentially everything necessary for us to show up and function in public at all.  “Balance” implies that these two phenomena are of an equal, non-hierarchical value to begin with, and that we should strive to have these two things in equal quantities.

Furthermore, “work-life balance” discussions tend to focus on how “work” outweighs “life” and how we can strive to shift the balance from “work” to “life”. Not only are all the assumptions wrong, they lead us to a paradigm that is absurd.

3 To link this topic with the recent Ann-Marie Slaughter article in the Atlantic, at http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/, or go to the discussion 'Round the Cooler! 4 "The Emperor's New Clothes" is a Danish tale about an Emperor who agrees with a malicious tailor to wear a new set of clothes, flattered that while he cannot see them, others will admire his attire. He parades in his "new clothes" (in fact, stark naked), but his people are so afraid of him, that no one dares to state the obvious: that he is without clothing. It is only a child, not knowing to go along with the fiction, who blurts out: "But the Emperor is wearing no clothes!"

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Our general understanding of the work-life balance denies three realities:

1. Life is work. Historically the nearly exclusive domain of women, without salary or recognition, “life” – as every woman knows – is work. Taking care of homes, partners, parents, and children is work. Preparing food, washing clothes, cleaning bathrooms, nursing the flu and growing food is work. For many of us, “work-life balance” looks and feels an awful lot like “work-work balance”.

2. Life is more important than work. These two phenomena are not of equal value and they are not interchangeable, and it is actually not a democracy. It is a clear and sensible hierarchy. One flows from and quite literally depends upon the other: If life is not in order, work is not even possible. All of the things you need to do that will not bring you the slightest amount of monetary compensation or recognition are more important than all the things you need to do to achieve fortune and fame. A seed does not simultaneously produce fruits and roots. It has to grow the roots first and neither stem nor flower nor fruit can exist without those roots. Life is the ground of work. If life is out of balance, we are in serious trouble. And I believe we are. If everyone knows that no one on her deathbed wishes she had spent more time at the office, why not act during life as if we knew this?

3. You cannot have it all. Anyone who says you can is simply not telling the truth. High- powered, "successful" careers demand that professional life be a consistent priority over the course of decades. Prioritizing something means choosing it. Choosing something means not choosing something else. Many highly educated professional young women quickly need to choose between “life” and “work”. Will they marry? Follow a spouse or partner? Start a family? Often, if the answer is yes to those kinds of questions, they know in their heart that their chances of ever truly competing for top positions in the professional realm are extremely limited. This is the reality, and we will be much better off if we admit it and stop pretending we can and should have it all. We cannot – and perhaps should not – have it all. Once we accept this, we are finally free to step into our own choices, our own power, and begin to create new ways of thinking and working.

New ways of thinking and working are exactly what we need now, but they will not emerge from discussions mired in the assumptions of the past. We need work that supports and sustains our lives, work that flows from our lives. We need new modalities, new labor laws, flexible hours and conditions. We need to slowly do away with systems built for industrial age production lines, and build ones that can capture the energy and talent of educated women who aspire to contribute to society in a myriad of ways.

Today, educated women in free societies are in the most fortunate and best positions they have ever known: in positions to choose. But the choice shouldn’t be between “life” and “work”. Instead, we should be choosing in order to live and honor what is of value to ourselves and to society. Instead of having fruitless discussions about how to find balance in a pathologically busy life, we could concentrate on articulating our choices with conviction and clarity.

Educated women should stop apologizing, start choosing and, above all, start talking straight. We should abandon the quest for the Holy "work-life balance" Grail with its old-fashioned

FWN Newsletter: Fletcher Women & Leadership Page 10 November 2012 assumptions and unrealistic expectations. Instead, we should identify our own values and sculpt our lives according to them - and then shout about them from the rooftops.

By doing this, we may finally begin to point out that life is more than the things you have to take care of when you are not at work; that many things which cannot be bought or sold are more valuable than those which can, and that there is more than a single value or measure of success. By doing this, we may begin to create new kinds of workplaces and new kinds of jobs. Most importantly, we may begin to expand the very definitions of value, success, and leadership – definitions which, judging by the state of the world today, are sorely in need of rethinking.

Barbara is right on! This topic is generating lots of debate in the media these days, and we have already seen some reactions to this piece. To respond to Barbara's ideas and join a discussion, go to 'Round the Water Cooler! http://fletcherwomensnetwork.ning.com/forum/topics/work-life-balance- assessing-and-re-thinking

5 | Increasing Fletcher Women's Leadership through new FWN Initiatives

While this newsletter is long, we must take a bit of space to announce other efforts to move the Network “to the next level". One fundamental goal of the FWN is to link Fletcher women with each other and thereby assist with professional advancement. The Network has two additional initiatives on the table to make the shift. The first is the Op-Ed Project, where its "mission is increasing the range of voices and quality of ideas we hear in the world. First, we will increase the pool of women thought leaders in key commentary forums to a tipping point. We envision a world where the best ideas - regardless of where they come from - will have a chance to be heard and possibly shape societies." We aim to organize a Fletcher-only workshop in the spring where Zeba Khan (F'07) will lead the seminar. Let's get more Fletcher women's expertise and perspectives into the public realm to influence public opinion and decision-making! http://www.theopedproject.org/

The other initiative relates to the sixth IWIL focus area: getting more Fletcher women on corporate boards. With the leadership of Ellen Richstone (F'74) and Ivka Kalus-Bystricky (F'90), the FWN is working with a member of Fletcher's Board who sits on IWIL's taskforce to develop a pilot initiative that will identify opportunities on boards and match them with qualified members of the Fletcher Women's Network. We hope there will be opportunities for some of you to help structure and implement it - and hope that others among you will want to serve on boards. Check out the discussion 'Round the Cooler, and be prepared to put yourself forward to sit on a board! To discuss and join this initiative, go here http://fletcherwomensnetwork.ning.com/forum/topics/fletcher-women-serving-on-boards

6 | Local Updates

On July 25th, the FWN and Women in International Trade group held a networking cocktail event at Black Finn in Washington, DC. Fortunately, there are several Fletcher women who

FWN Newsletter: Fletcher Women & Leadership Page 11 November 2012 bridge both organizations, and this event provided an opportunity to join forces and widen our network.

Women leaders supporting each other is not Fletcher-exclusive, and at this event, women who work in male-dominated fields were able to connect and share experiences.

The FWN/DC also met for brunch on Oct. 28th at Yoon Park's home north of Washington, DC. There were many opportunities to network, but also to plan for future activities!

Note that in addition to the DC group, we have groups in New England, New York City, the Bay Area, Geneva and Italy. If you live in those areas and wish to organize or attend a local event, please let us know at Fletcherwomen @rocketmail.com

With FWN members, Cami, Abby and Dulce

7 | Did you know … In the spirit of this newsletter, think about how each of the following women has been a leader - publicly or privately, with government or the media, making decisions or leading thinking and perspectives. And do not forget all the other leaders we have profiled in the last 12 issues of our newsletter. So inspiring!

Joyce Aluoch (GMAP '08), the first judge from Kenya to serve at the international level, was elected in 2009 for a nine-year term to the International Criminal Court in the Hague from the African group of states. In March 2012, she was elected President of the Trial Division consisting of five trial chambers. She is a member of Trial Division 3 that is hearing the trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo and is the presiding judge in Trial Chamber 4 that is hearing the case of Banda and Jerbo (the Darfur situation).

Prior to her ICC appointment, Joyce was a senior member of the Kenyan judiciary, having been the inaugural head of the family division of the Kenyan High Court and a member of the Court of Appeals. She has also served as vice-chair and member of the U.N. Committee on the Rights and Welfare of the Child from 2003 to 2009. Following that, Joyce established the 's Committee on the Rights of the Child, serving as its first Chair for five years.

Martha Brettschneider (F'91) lives in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., "with her husband, two sons, and a small petting zoo." She spends her days writing, running, gardening, cooking strange

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vegetables, and scrubbing turf stains out of soccer shorts. In her former life, after Fletcher, she served as an international economist at the U.S. Treasury Department and in the U.S. Executive Director’s Office at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Now, however, Martha is engaged in a new project: writing that focuses on personal transformation and mindfulness in all areas of our lives. "Transformation comes quickly for some and slowly for others. Mine was set in motion by the nanny skipping town when my eldest son (now 16) was a year old. It was accelerated by breast cancer in 2009 (the boob job was another thing I had sworn I would never do), and stumbling on to the work of Eckhart Tolle in A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose."

Using blogging as means to connect with readers around the world as she hashes out ideas for her book in progress, Martha is learning that, when used purposefully, social media (including Twitter!), can be important tools for transformation. To savor her writing and challenges to be mindful even as we are balancing the forces of chaos and order in our lives, see Martha’s blog. http://marthabrettschneider.com/

Adria Chamberlain (F'08) was tapped to manage a two-day forum at The National Press Club and White House on November 17-18, 2011 that provided an opportunity for 150 of the country's leading social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, private sector leaders, and federal policy- makers to exchange information, learn about the inner workings of the federal government's Social Innovation Fund, and discuss opportunities and challenges present in today's social innovation landscape. Adria had a team of 20+ working round the clock in the months leading up, all made worthwhile when she got to see the Oval Office. Although she was not allowed to take pictures, the experience is burned well into her memory.

Melinda Crane (F'80) is a Berlin-based journalist and moderator. Melinda received her PhD in political economy at Fletcher. She is a frequent guest and commentator on German television and radio, analyzing U.S. policy for a German public. An experienced TV anchor, she is chief political correspondent at Deutsche Welle TV and hosts the DW talk show “Quadriga” as well as the political magazine “People and Politics.” As International Affairs Consultant to the discussion show “Sabine Christiansen”, she has produced interviews with , , Hillary Clinton and George Bush, among others. Her journalistic experience includes work for the credit: Jann Wilken New York Times Magazine, The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, The Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor and German newspapers and magazines. credit: Sanjay Parekh Karen Donfried (F'88) is the National Intelligence Officer for Europe on the National Intelligence Council. After receiving her MALD from Fletcher in 1988 and her PhD in 1991, Karen worked on European issues at the Congressional Research Service. She was recruited by the German Marshall Fund in 2001 to lead their Foreign Policy Program until 2003, when she received an offer to join the State Department's Policy

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Planning Staff. She returned to the GMF in 2005 and became the Executive Vice President, enjoying the challenge of helping to lead a non-profit that had tripled in size over a relatively short period of time with offices spread across seven countries. Karen joined the National Intelligence Council last year and has been busy with crises -- from the euro zone to Syria. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Council on Germany. To know her better, watch her here. http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/

Monique Essed-Fernandes (F'04) has been a forerunner in her country, Suriname, in advancing women's issues. As a founder of a women's development organization, a women's parliament forum and a political organization, she has especially focused on democratic governance and women's political participation. She hopes to have been a role model for at least some young girls by having been the first woman nominated by a political party as a presidential candidate in 2005. And as she says, "Our work is never finished!"

Athena Makri (F'09) joined the Greek Diplomatic Service in 1999. She has served in different departments of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including the European Union External Relations department and the Office of the Secretary General for International Economic Relations and Development Cooperation. Between 2002 and 2006 she was posted in the Greek Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva. After Athena graduated from Fletcher, she was posted to the Embassy of Greece in Rabat, Morocco where she is the Deputy Chief of Mission and handles political and consular affairs. She was recently promoted to the grade of First Councellor.

Camelia Mazard (F'97), a partner with the law firm Doyle, Barlow & Mazard, focuses on all aspects of Antitrust and International Trade Regulation Law. Cami counsels a range of clients, including multi-national corporations and trade associations, regarding compliance with federal antitrust rules, and advises both U.S. and foreign companies in the federal merger review process. She also represents companies involved in civil and criminal investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and in federal and state private antitrust litigation. The Washington City Paper’s Readers’ Poll named her one of DC's best lawyers for 2011 and 2012.

Sally Merrill (F'64) recalls that she was fortunate to have had activist parents, with international interests, and the opportunity to attend supportive schools: Wellesley, Fletcher, and Boston University. She credits that background for having launched her in two distinct careers: first addressing low-income housing issues in the U.S. and secondly, when her children were older and she could travel more freely, working on housing and mortgage market issues abroad. Sally worked first in Eastern Europe, and then in Asia and Africa. She is most proud to have assisted with the launch of a new development field: microfinance for housing (MFH), which was inspired by the plight of lower and modest income households in the developing world who could neither afford the housing that developers were offering nor qualify for a mortgage in the

FWN Newsletter: Fletcher Women & Leadership Page 14 November 2012 formal finance sector. Sally has noted, "As a branch of microfinance, MFH is designed to offer affordable finance to many who are excluded elsewhere and hopefully encourage developers to provide low-income housing compatible with what these households can afford. It is a hopeful alternative to public housing in the developing world (which has never been very successful), relying instead on household initiative and the private sector. It is no panacea, of course, as all the problems which face microfinance proper are joined by those facing third world land and housing markets."

Ellen Richstone (F'74) has been CFO of both public and private companies ranging in size up to $3 billion in revenue and the CEO of a private company. In addition to being a qualified SEC financial expert, she has extensive experience in global companies, mergers and acquisitions, integration and manufacturing. She has worked in a range of industries, including IT, telecommunications, semiconductors, life sciences and industrial products. Ellen has served on multiple boards for over 20 years, frequently serving as the Chair of the Audit Committee.

Busadee Santipitaks (F'90) is now Deputy Director-General at the Department of ASEAN Affairs for the Thai Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Connie Schneider (F'06) is Chair of the Board of Directors for the School of Leadership Afghanistan (SOLA), an organization founded by Fletcher alumnus, Ted Achilles (F'62). Connie has written: "SOLA supports future Afghan leaders - particularly women - by providing educational and professional opportunities. At the moment, this means many SOLA students end up on scholarships in schools abroad. But the vision of SOLA's 22-year old Afghan Managing Director is to turn it into a world-class boarding school in Kabul. (It is already a boarding school and houses girls from all over the country. It is the first school of its kind, with girls from Helmand, Kandahar, Kunduz, Bamian, and includes some who are victims of acid attacks, who live with artificial legs, who had to wear burqas until they arrived at SOLA, or who learned to write with mud in a village school.) But the school is not just about academics. It is as much about learning how to drive or ride a bike (both quite inconceivable for most Afghan girls), about encouraging civil engagements such as volunteering for the Red Crescent or working at the local orphanage, about interacting with the world through satellite video conferencing equipment, about learning to value sports activities (again, very unusual for most Afghan girls), about critical thinking and questioning, and about choice and responsibility. SOLA’s core values are: "Courage to Grow - Knowledge to Lead - Power to Change".

Shabana Basij-Rasikh, SOLA's managing director, is not a Fletcher graduate, but she might as well be. (She has, in fact, met Professor Hess and works closely with many Fletcher graduates.) Another Fletcher alumna, Marta Abrantes Mendes (F'09) is a keen volunteer teacher, and there are other Fletcher connections, such as Silbi Stainton (F'02) who is Founder and Executive Director of the Marshall Direct Fund, a partner NGO of SOLA's that is working in the education and female economic empowerment sectors in AFPAK and Kashmir. SOLA also collaborates with Xanthe Ackerman (F'06, PhD'11) and her NGO 'Advancing Girls' Education Africa' to learn from their experience. Learn more at www.sola-afghanistan.org or at www.facebook.com/sola.afghanistan."

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Carrie Thompson (F'88) is now Deputy Mission Director at USAID/Regional Development Mission for Asia. Before that, she served as Director of the Office of East African Affairs at USAID and Director of the EGAT Program Office at USAID.

Sandy Vogelgesang (F'65) has held numerous positions in the U.S. Government, including serving as Ambassador to the Kingdom of Nepal. She was Special Advisor to the Administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Principal Deputy for International Programs at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations. Her positions with the Department of State ranged from serving on the Policy Planning Staff for two Secretaries of State, to coordinating all U.S. policy in the development and technical agencies of the United Nations. She also served as the Chief Economic Officer for the U.S. Embassy and consulates in Canada, and as Director of U.S. regional political and economic policy in Europe.

Sandy has won many awards, including three Presidential Awards and the highest individual award given by the EPA. She has published two books and many articles on foreign policy. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Foreign Service Association, the Public Diplomacy Council, and the President’s Council of Cornell Women.

Susan Wadia-Ells (F'82) is founding director of the National Breast Cancer Prevention Project/Busting Breast Cancer, a non-profit offering educational programs, including a website, blog, articles and workshops that translate international research on the known, probable and possible causes of breast cancer into everyday language that all women can use to help stop breast cancer before it starts. From The Gloucester Times, Oct. 1, 2008

Susan has been a life- According to the Silent Spring Institute, Manchester (Massachusetts) has an long national change incidence rate of breast cancer that is 51 percent to 100 percent higher than the state agent. Working at average. According to Susan Wadia-Ells, director and founder of Know Breast Polaroid, the Fortune Cancer, Massachusetts has the sixth highest breast cancer rate in the United States. Nationally, one in seven women are diagnosed with breast cancer. 200 instant photography giant, as However, recent studies have found 90 percent of breast cancer cases are not linked a young administrator to family history, leading some organizations to look at everyday prevention. during the 1970's, Wadia-Ells calls breast cancer an "unnecessary epidemic," and believes more Susan quickly money should be spent on breast cancer prevention. "It makes no sense to spend 98 percent of money on diagnosis and treatment and 2 percent on stopping breast organized women cancer before it starts," she said. employees and pressured corporate management to offer equal benefits and equal pay, along with goals and timetables to include women in skilled trades, sales, manufacturing, finance and marketing jobs at all levels. When the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Harvard Business School began calling Susan to ask what U.S. corporations think about this woman's issue or that, Susan began to understand that national social change and individual power are all about being in the right place at the right time, moving forward with a plan, and having the right support around you 24/7. Her work at Polaroid is described in Not Servants. Not Machines: Office Workers Speak Out by Jean

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Tepperman, Beacon Press, 1975 and Networking: The Great New Way for Women to Get Ahead, by Mary-Scott Welch, Harcourt Brace, 1980.

Susan is also the creator and contributing editor of The Adoption Reader: Birth Mothers, Adoptive Mothers and Adopted Daughters Tell Their Stories, published by Seal Press. Susan's Honest Health and political columns have appeared in the Brattleboro Reformer (VT), the Gloucester Daily Times (MA), the Cape Cod Times (MA), the Keene Sentinel (NH), Sojourner (MA), the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, the Eagle Tribune (MA), Management Review (American Management Association), Society & Innovation and In These Times and in various on-line journals. The latest, however, is that she has recently sent in her first e-book in a seven volume series to Book Baby, and it should soon be available on all digital platforms (including Kindle, Nook, and I-pad)!

The FWN Needs Your Support! The FWN has instituted voluntary member dues (or donations) to generate resources with which to move the Network to another level. Your contributions will be used to support the Op-Ed Project workshop, a panel featuring Fletcher women who have served in Afghanistan to talk about their experiences and "what next", and costs for keeping the online community advertisement-free. You can pay by check, Paypal or via wire transfer. Click here http://fletcherwomensnetwork.ning.com/page/donate for more information 'Round the Water Cooler. If you are not a member of our online community, please contact us at [email protected]

Concluding Comments:

Our objective in producing the FWN newsletters is to provide information and encourage networking and ongoing discussions. The IWIL focuses us to think about opportunities and leadership roles for Fletcher women, and we trust you will appreciate this as much as its initiators. We thus hope you will follow the issues or initiatives introduced here by meeting us 'Round the [virtual] Water Cooler to share reactions and perspectives and to indicate your interest in contributing to the FWN's future.

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Reading Corner

Claire relied on a variety of sources for the white paper and this newsletter and has noted others recommended by Fletcher women. The following list is by no means complete but may serve as a starting point for researching the topic of women’s leadership. You can both reference and add to the list at the IWIL Discussion Forum.

Books Brizedine, Louann (2006). The Female Brain. New York: Broadway Books.

Eagly, Alice H. & Carli, Linda I. (2007). Through the Labyrinth: The Trust About How Women Become Leaders. Boston: Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Business School. Ghaffani, Elizabeth (2011). Women Leaders at Work: Untold Tales of Women Achieving Their Ambitions. New York: Springer Science+Business Media.

Gurian, Michael & Annis, Barbara (2008). Leadership and the Sexes: Using Gender Science to Create Success in Business. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Jones, Bernie D (2012). Women Who Opt Out: The Debate Over Working Mothers and Work-Family Balance. New York & London: New York University Press.

Tannen, Deborah (1994). Talking from 9 to 5. New York: HarperCollins.

Wittenberg-Cox, Avivah and Maitland, Alison (2009). Why Women Mean Business, (Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Links to articles, reports and think tanks http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/ http://www.economist.com/node/21539928 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/us/02iht-letter02.html?pagewanted=all http://www.ft.com/intl/management/women-at-the-top http://www.simmons.edu/som/docs/insights_32_v6.pdf http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/WSJExecutiveSummary.pdf www.ccl.org/leadership/capabilities/europe/tools/papers.aspx http://www.forbes.com/sites/joelkotkin/2011/11/08/women-ascendent-where-females-are-rising-the-fastest/ http://sites.asiasociety.org/womenleaders/ http://www.mckinsey.com/features/women_matter http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/03/three_ways_women_can_make_offi.html http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/hewlett/2011/01/the_real_benefit_of_finding_a.html http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/hewlett/2010/05/when_female_networks_arent_eno.html

Women’s leadership initiatives at other universities www.womeninpublicservice.org www.cipa.cornell.edu/studentlife/wipp.cfm transatlantic.sais-jhu.edu/events/2011/gender_conf.htm www.duq.edu/business/about/business-and-technology-centers/the-beard-institute/corporate-programs/wel.html http://bigthink.com/users/sylviahewlett

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